Monte-Carlo Masters F: [4] Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. [6] Andrey Rublev

Who will be the new champion?


  • Total voters
    42
  • Poll closed .

Red Rick

Bionic Poster
yeah, career numbers, because Rublev played and lost plenty at the ATP level back in like 2015. Not very relevant to where they are now.

We are talking about the here and the now and their recent runs on clay are virtually identical..
Tsitsipas was hovering at 55% games won as early as 2018, the hear he broke through on HC with like 51% games or something dank. I'd expect Rublev to be the better grass player though.
 
Evans and Rublev really cleared the path for him nicely. Can't help but notice how much more stunning runs Mad Lad and Zverev had for some of their Masters titles. But he did his job, no sets dropped this week and showed before that he can play some strong tennis on clay. So congrats to the philosopher.

Agree for Medvedev, not that much for Zverev, in my memories, his Rome 2017 win was not very memorable.
The worst winner has to be Dimitrov honestly, this Cincinnati was a joke
 

TennisFan3

Talk Tennis Guru
Nadal is still extremely likely to win RG, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Tsitsipas came in 2nd place this year. Short of Djokovic I don’t think anyone is better on clay than him, and Tsitsipas had a tough match with him last year. He also had that epic with Wawrinka a few years ago so he’s been giving solid performances at RG.

I might like to see a match between Thiem and Tsitsipas, but I think Tsitsipas would probably win if they played at RG now.
Them is a far better clay player than Titspas. And unlike Titspas, Thiem could actually beat Novak. I expect Thiem to recover his form by RG time.
 

-NN-

G.O.A.T.
Damn it I missed the match due to the utter carnage ongoing in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Well done, Philosopher. Guess that makes up somewhat for all those 500 failures... a WTF and a Masters 1000.

Now go nuke Nadal at RG. Good lad.
 

TheAssassin

G.O.A.T.
Zverev’s masters titles weren’t stunning at all lol. He beat a terrible Djokovic for one, and a crippled Federer for another. And then a horrible Thiem in Madrid.

And when did Med win a Masters. I can’t remember.
Djokovic was pretty dominant before the final so I give Zverev credit for upsetting him in his first big final appearance. And I remember he didn't drop a single service game when he won Madrid, facing like just one break point or so. Obviously Canada was a stinker though.

Medvedev has three Masters lol. Cincy and Shanghai in 2019, Paris last year.
 

Steve0904

Talk Tennis Guru
Damn it I missed the match due to the utter carnage ongoing in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Well done, Philosopher. Guess that makes up somewhat for all those 500 failures... a WTF and a Masters 1000.

Now go nuke Nadal at RG. Good lad.

Not much missed. Rublev below average. Final nerves probably. Tsitsipas played well. Very solid.
 

Steve0904

Talk Tennis Guru
Djokovic was pretty dominant before the final so I give Zverev credit for upsetting him in his first big final appearance. And I remember he didn't drop a single service game when he won Madrid, facing like just one break point or so. Obviously Canada was a stinker though.

Medvedev has three Masters lol. Cincy and Shanghai in 2019, Paris last year.

LOL. I've missed the boat on Medvedev then, or maybe his runs just weren't impressive enough. ;)

But I stand by my take on Zverev's titles. None of them were altogether that impressive. Djokovic played a garbage final so him being dominant beforehand means nothing to me. And I don't think Zverev's matches before the finals in any of the events was particularly noteworthy.

Tsitsipas's run here was obviously a bit of a cakewalk, I don't deny, but I also think that he's one of the best clay courters at present so I don't have much problem with him winning. I would've preferred Rublev simply because he beat Nadal, and I don't like Tsitsipas that much, but the guy has game on clay. It's been clear for years now.
 

TheAssassin

G.O.A.T.
LOL. I've missed the boat on Medvedev then, or maybe his runs just weren't impressive enough. ;)

But I stand by my take on Zverev's titles. None of them were altogether that impressive. Djokovic played a garbage final so him being dominant beforehand means nothing to me. And I don't think Zverev's matches before the finals in any of the events was particularly noteworthy.

Tsitsipas's run here was obviously a bit of a cakewalk, I don't deny, but I also think that he's one of the best clay courters at present so I don't have much problem with him winning. I would've preferred Rublev simply because he beat Nadal, and I don't like Tsitsipas that much, but the guy has game on clay. It's been clear for years now.
Check out his win over Novak at the Real Slam then. :p

I guess it's just that I prefer all of his peers over him so this wasn't a good day lol. I agree he's got potential. For what it's worth this can also be looked as an earned break for him after having to go through Djokodal the previous two times he made a Masters final. He's been around long enough now and good enough to take such opportunities.
 

Steve0904

Talk Tennis Guru
Check out his win over Novak at the Real Slam then. :p

I guess it's just that I prefer all of his peers over him so this wasn't a good day lol. I agree he's got potential. For what it's worth this can also be looked as an earned break for him after having to go through Djokodal the previous two times he made a Masters final. He's been around long enough now and good enough to take such opportunities.

I don't think anyone here is a huge fan of Tsitsipas lol. But if the guy is playing great tennis as Tsitsipas did today then I'll say he played great tennis and deserved to win. Most of the time I separate personality from tennis playing ability (unless it's like a Zverev situation). Or put another way, Tsitsipas seems like an immature jackass, but I don't care when I'm watching him play.

I'm not preaching at you here either, but I think TTW users are going to have to get used to this trend in the coming years. The winner of the tournament might have a cakewalk after the guy who beats Nadal or Djokovic plays a bad final (i.e Thiem and Rublev for example). Or they might win a title where Djokovic or Nadal look great leading up to the final, but play like dogshit on the day because they're in their mid 30's. And if this was a slam I'd care more if Tsitsipas had a cakewalk, but because it's a Masters I don't care at all tbh. I don't think it signals a change at the slams either and I won't believe that until I see it anyway.
 

TennisIcon

Rookie
Zverev’s masters titles weren’t stunning at all lol. He beat a terrible Djokovic for one, and a crippled Federer for another. And then a horrible Thiem in Madrid.

And when did Med win a Masters. I can’t remember.

He’s won three Paris, Shanghai, and Cincinnati.
 

ark_28

Legend
Disappointing match from Rublev he didn’t play anywhere near what he can. But full credit to Tsistipas did what he had to to win his first masters.
 

Harry_Wild

G.O.A.T.
1st 1000 title (aka ATP Master) for Tsitsipas and it happens to be on the red clay! LOL! Poor Rublev, still the King of the 500 tournaments for now!
 
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:D
 

Krish0608

G.O.A.T.
Tsitsipas is so so good when he's on. Today he was hardly missing at all, covering the court really well, serving big and hitting that Forehand like a dream. He has no shot against Rafa to be honest, but against anyone else, I would put him as the favorite on clay (except an in-form Thiem)
 

TennisFan3

Talk Tennis Guru
Tsitsipas is so so good when he's on. Today he was hardly missing at all, covering the court really well, serving big and hitting that Forehand like a dream. He has no shot against Rafa to be honest, but against anyone else, I would put him as the favorite on clay (except an in-form Thiem)
He has no prayer against Novak or even against Thiem.
He is NOT even in the top 3 on clay.

It's Nadal, Novak, Thiem........................................Titspas.
 

bjsnider

Hall of Fame
Tsitsipas is the best in the world on clay right now. It will change, but he's got the crown at the moment. The movement, the serve, and those spinny groundstrokes finding sharp angles puts him at the top.
 

Ray Mercer

Hall of Fame
Great match from Tsitsipas. He played excellent. I thought Rublev would do a lot better. I wonder if Tsitsipas’ backhand will hold up against Nadal on Chatrier.
 
Lol he looks happy and proud. Good for him.

I hope that winning will help him get more focused on the tennis, instead of all those other things he is busy doing, which don't help him in the slightest.

He certainly has a potent game that can get even better, if he is focused enough. He might not get to become a world beater, but he certainly has a game to reach even greater success.

:cool:
 

EllieK

Hall of Fame
After that second set break, I was expecting a choke but it a was a very mature and consistent tsitsipas who showed up today. Good for him. I really enjoy watching his game when it is on. Hoping this win will open the floodgates and give him some belief that he has what it takes
 

pointbreak

Rookie
Rublev tends to play below par when he is the favourite or close to it, he also struggles with a player that really mixes it up? he should have clinched both Miami and this one
 

D.Nalby12

G.O.A.T.
As expected it was quite an easy win for Sisipas. He looks so much natural on clay - so I am thinking he might make RG final this year. About Rublev - no matter of his improvements he remains a 1D ball basher. Sisipas has got more variety, all court game and he could hit equally big if wanted. So no surprise he won this.
 

EllieK

Hall of Fame
Zverev’s masters titles weren’t stunning at all lol. He beat a terrible Djokovic for one, and a crippled Federer for another. And then a horrible Thiem in Madrid.

And when did Med win a Masters. I can’t remember.
Cincinnati, Paris, Shanghai
 

yokied

Hall of Fame
I think (understandably) lost along the way when complaining about Tsitsipas' soft draw this week is that he's been playing really good tennis. They were all matches he was supposed to win, so it was hard to tell.

Credit where it’s due: he played good, ruthless tennis in the final and closed it out well. Well-measured aggression, controlling the rallies and ending them quickly and decisively, with plenty of winners. (But that’s easy to do when your opponent is playing tired, with very predictable patterns, sending the ball back to you a lot.)

The rest of his tournament however had a lot of very ordinary tennis, and it wasn’t hard to tell. Hardly any winners, playing passive and deep, behind in mid and long rally counts against pretty much every opponent. He clearly did a lot better on the scoreboard and won the matches. I’m not trying to take that away from him at all. But the opponents were absolute UE machines, every step of the way, including the final.

What it tells us IMHO is this tournament will not have much bearing on the business end of clay, especially RG. There’ll be several players exposing the Tsits-Rubles MC false dawn and both will be lucky to make RG semis IMHO. We have to remember clay last year was a total non-event and it may take some time for the rust to be shaken off.

I expect resistance on this, so when I get a chance I’ll collate snapshots of the errors and baseline rally breakdowns from a lot of MC matches illustrating just how poor the level was.
 

Red Rick

Bionic Poster
Credit where it’s due: he played good, ruthless tennis in the final and closed it out well. Well-measured aggression, controlling the rallies and ending them quickly and decisively, with plenty of winners. (But that’s easy to do when your opponent is playing tired, with very predictable patterns, sending the ball back to you a lot.)

The rest of his tournament however had a lot of very ordinary tennis, and it wasn’t hard to tell. Hardly any winners, playing passive and deep, behind in mid and long rally counts against pretty much every opponent. He clearly did a lot better on the scoreboard and won the matches. I’m not trying to take that away from him at all. But the opponents were absolute UE machines, every step of the way, including the final.

What it tells us IMHO is this tournament will not have much bearing on the business end of clay, especially RG. There’ll be several players exposing the Tsits-Rubles MC false dawn and both will be lucky to make RG semis IMHO. We have to remember clay last year was a total non-event and it may take some time for the rust to be shaken off.

I expect resistance on this, so when I get a chance I’ll collate snapshots of the errors and baseline rally breakdowns from a lot of MC matches illustrating just how poor the level was.
Yeah, fans should take the win, not overreact for RG.
 

aldeayeah

G.O.A.T.
It's nice to see two young players sharpening their game for clay. Most of them have the right tools, but for one reason or another they fail to fulfill their potential on the red stuff.

It's not like I will be betting against Nadovic just yet, but this RG could be an interesting one - especially if Thiem heals and gets his sh*t back together.
 
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